A Small World After All
Posted on | March 11, 2010 | No Comments
[Fair warning to my few and faithful readers: I’m going to talk about PBS’ Faces of America program again. I know, I’m getting annoying, but I really loved this show and think it raised a number of important questions to consider. Still, if you’re sick and tired of reading about it, you might want to read something else today and come back to Ordinary Mer later.)
We’re all different. It’s a fact we celebrate every day. We rejoice in our own uniqueness, playing up the parts of ourselves that separate us from the person next to us. We like being ourselves, intrinsically and wholly our own person. No one wants to think of themselves as indistinguishable from someone else. Even when we don’t want to stand out, we don’t necessarily want to become faceless automatons.
Sometimes, though, the very things that make us different lead to conflict. Boy A doesn’t like that Boy B is taller, while Girl B hates the fact that Girl A has curly hair. Time and again throughout history, violence can be traced back to the fact that one group of people doesn’t like that another group of people because of their differences.
So perhaps it’s good to know that we’re all much more alike than we may realize.
The PBS Faces of America program made us question our assumptions about people’s ancestry, but it also revealed some surprising connections between the show’s guests. Using fancy science techniques and DNA testing, the show’s researchers and host, Dr. Henry Louis Gates, were able to discover common ancestry between unlikely pairs of people. Poet Elizabeth Alexander shares an ancestor with Stephan Colbert, as does celebrity chef Mario Batali with Queen Noor of Jordan. And maybe most surprising of all, according to their DNA, Eva Longoria and cellist Yo-Yo Ma have an ancestor in common. (When presented with that finding by Dr. Gates, the quick-witted Longoria quipped, “He’s Mexican?”)
Despite our certainty of our uniqueness and the physical differences we present to the world, humans truly are connected and related in profound and startling ways.
One of the concepts introduced by the program was that of the haplogroup. Haplogroups are, in simple terms, large, ancient branches of the family tree of humanity (or, in scientific terms, of homo sapiens). Scientists believe that all humans are descended from a handful of core haplogroups, which eventually broke down into several smaller branches over the course of history.
We all belong to at least one haplogroup, which means that on some small, microscopic, genetic level, we share ancient ancestral connections with millions of other people. And while we are all different in our own ways, we are also far more alike and more connected to the people around us. It turns out Walt Disney was right – it really is a small world after all.
It may seem silly to be preoccupied with such minute details that don’t necessarily have much of an impact on our everyday lives. We are, of course, so much more than just our DNA. But in this current world, where wars and conflicts rage across the globe in the name of our differences, it can’t hurt to be reminded that there’s more that unites us than divides us.
For instance, for years, and indeed centuries, the relationship between the Jews and Muslims has been fraught with tension, violence and fragility. Some mind even say it dates all the way back to the Book of Genesis and Abraham’s sons, Issac and Ishmael. It’s a seemingly endless conflict based on politics, religion and perceived differences – differences that might not be so different after all.
When studying the haplogroups of the Faces of America participants, Dr. Gates and the researchers found something surprising – and hopeful. Dr. Mehmet, who has Turkish Muslim ancestry, and Mike Nichols, who has Eastern European Jewish ancestry, share the exact same paternal haplogroup. It’s scientific evidence that suggests that Muslims and Jews – two groups that have spent years trying to kill each other – share a common ancestry dating back to the very beginnings of human life.
I know this fact won’t magically erase years of tensions, violence and volatile relations. It’s probably not going to bring about world peace. But it is a powerful reminder that, no matter what makes us different from the person standing next to us, we are all, at our very core, human. And maybe, just maybe, this simple fact will make even one person pause and reconsider how he or she looks at the person who has been labeled his or her enemy.
“It’s maybe best to think of who we are as a mosaic: a whole made from bits of all that has gone before, not only our ancestors’ genomes, but their life choices and their fortunes, good and bad.” – Dr. Henry Louis Gates
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